Discussion point ...

"There ARE enough train crew, so don't worry about it.  And we can cope with the need for catching up on training. We can cope with the requirement of a third of them not to include Sunday in the working week. We can cope with them not wanting to work overtime because they have just received £12,000 gross in backpay. We can cope with the extra crew needed for extra duties because of engineering works. We can cope with crew off sick. And we can cope with little local shortages which are often only 2 or 3 people.”  I am paraphrasing what we were told last week

Problem is - multiples of those issues occur at the same time and when that happens you have demonstrably not been coping unless you consider the degree of cancellations we are getting to be acceptable. On a good day it works.  Here's a selection from Sunday 6th October - there are 18 cancellations as I write and 8 other "train service update" which is a euphemism for "cancelled for part of the journey", a.k.a. cancelled as far as people travelling from, to or through those stations are concerned.  And knowing (and reminded by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) that each driver drives multiple trains in a day ...







Does the odd cancellation actually matter?  Are we at a level where this is realistic or and our expectations are too high? I have a great deal of sympathy with "control" who make the difficult decisions of which services to cut. Do they have sufficient of the right tools in their armoury to do the right job and do the systems that adapt at times slower than the speed of a snail - or not at all - help them?

I was out and about yesterday and from what I saw it was mostly a good day ... but did it really need things like trains at 17:35 and 17:38 to Gloucester from Temple Meads?   2 trains an hour Bristol to Exeter leaving 10 minutes apart?   Staff checking tickets lots of times (and on trains from barriered station) but the first time I saw a catering trolley was at 17:20.

I am able to withstand the odd cancellation where there is another train a bit behind, and I laugh off the lac of catering as I sip from the flask I have brought with me.  I am not averse to persuading someone to let me sit in a seat that was previously occupied by their things, and I am quite happy to help the couple at the remote and unstaffed station of Trowbridge who have found themselves accidentally there because of miscommunication and need to make sure they don't compound the problem going off to and even wronger place.  But I worry when I read "I no longer use my local station because the service is unreliable" from someone who's been a keen advocate and user for many years, or I talk with another ex-regular who in his midlife is learning to drive because his employment requires reliable attendance which has been stretched to put it mildly this year.

I think we have to be resigned to the fact that travelling on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on Sundays, Saturdays too at times, is a lottery as to whether your train will be cancelled and it isn’t going to change. It’s been this way ever since I joined this forum back in 2006.

One quick look at SWR^» (South Western Railway - about)’s Journeycheck page shows no cancellations involving train crew shortages and this is often the case whenever I’ve looked.

Today it’s the turn of Weston-super-Mare and the Severn Beach line to bear the bulk of the cancellations and short running, the latter particularly bad later on today unless someone can be found to operate trains on this line.

Indeed, Northern is far worse than GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway). How they rejoiced when Northern became government run. Nothings changed though has it? Hence why I don’t think anything will change when GWR eventually becomes state run. The current problems will just be carried over.

Talking of GWR, I see since my last look at JC around 10am this morning that the cancellation list has grown and the usual cancellations in both directions on the London to Southwest line have appeared. It’s the same every weekend.

There’s clearly a real staffing problem in the Southwest in particular. I keep saying they need to redo the weekend timetables for this line. Be realistic and produce a timetable that you can reliably offer passengers. It’s quite clear GWR cannot deliver the current weekend timetables.

It does happen sometimes on SWR; this morning on Journey Check...